Life on the Keystone XL: Our reporter’s 1700 mile trek

Hello   The revived Keystone XL pipeline could become one of the defining environmental clashes of the Trump administration, with activists, Native Americans and local landowners saying they're prepared to lay their bodies on the line if the bulldozers arrive. On his fourth day in office, Trump reversed Obama's Keystone policy, resurrecting a vast 1,200-mile construction project that is set to connect Canada's tar sands in Alberta to south-east Nebraska in the US. The pipeline threatens to disrupt access to clean water, will undermine private land rights and could add millions of tons of greenhouse gasses to the atmosphere. After the project was granted a federal permit in March, we set out on a 1,700-mile journey along the proposed route in the US to meet the people and communities who could be affected. The journey took us through three red states, Montana, South Dakota and Nebraska, that voted decisively for Trump in 2016, to communities that are not often visited by national reporters. We came back with hours of video footage and notebooks full of details, and this week we're publishing a three part interactive series on the route.

Our Keystone XL project comes as the Guardian is expanding its environment desk, adding three heavyweight reporters to its continent-spanning, award-winning team to bolster our coverage. You can read more about our commitment to covering climate change and the fossil fuel industry here, including a letter from our newly appointed global environment editor, Jonathan Watts.

Guardian US reporter Oliver Laughland snaps a photo on the Fort Peck Reservation in Montana while traveling along the Keystone XL pipeline route     During our journey along the pipeline, we met with ranchers, local business owners, Native American leaders, local politicians and activists. Some expressed concerns about the potential for a leak on their land. Others denied the existence of manmade climate change and dismissed the longstanding environmental concerns over the pipeline. But the politics was never as straightforward as you might have expected. Many of those lined up to oppose the construction were Republicans who said they felt forced to settle with the Canadian company that plans to construct the pipeline under the threat of eminent domain. They were dismayed that a conservative in office had already let them down. "Being a conservative is one thing," cattle rancher John Harter told us on his cattle pasture the XL is set to traverse. "Being a blind conservative is another." As the pipeline approaches its final stage of approval, we found that some people in these three states are willing to risk their lives in protests to block construction. Others are terrified that protests similar to those at Standing Rock last year might lead to violent encounters with law enforcement, and back new state laws that curb the right of people to assemble and protest. We hope you will join us on this journey, through ranchland, vast plains and rural towns that reveals not just the deep divisions within these communities but the strong alliances that are being forged. Follow the project here. Laurence Mathieu and Oliver Laughland

What we're reading: top picks from our editors 1. Run against Trump? Elizabeth Warren will certainly stand and fight Senator who the president derides with a racist nickname has a book to promote, a seat to win and rumors of a White House bid to … neither confirm nor deny 2. Stop swooning over Justin Trudeau. The man is a disaster for the planet, writes Bill McKibben Donald Trump is a creep and unpleasant to look at, but at least he's not a stunning hypocrite when it comes to climate change 3. Hadley Freeman: Le Pen is a far-right Holocaust revisionist. Macron isn't. Hard choice? My family know all too well the consequences of fascism in France. The left shouldn't be dithering about whether to support Emmanuel Macron 4. One nation, two Trumps: America as divided as ever after first 100 days We asked two neighboring communities in Ohio what they make of the president's first 100 days in office 5. Ivanka Trump's new book: I'm a working mom who can't always get a massage President's daughter and adviser wants to 'debunk the superwoman myth' – by saying she didn't even have time to meditate during the election

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